Print Production Goes Airborne at Red Bull Flugtag
Print production isn’t always about what comes off the press. Sometimes, it takes a giant paper airplane, a little problem-solving and a whole lot of creativity to show what print can do. And our print got wiiings!
For Red Bull Flugtag 2026, Smartpress and our parent company, The Bernard Group (TBG), teamed up to bring The Paper Airplane to life. With branded printed graphics, sustainable material choices and in-house design and fabrication, we put our capabilities to the test. Did it fly? Keep reading to find out…
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Key Takeaways
- Smartpress and TBG combined their design, engineering and print production expertise to bring The Paper Airplane to life.
- Vibrant CMYK-inspired graphics and large-scale printing helped turn the giant paper airplane into a showstopper.
- The plane’s Reboard construction showcased the potential of sustainable, paper-based materials in ambitious structural projects.
What is Red Bull Flugtag?
Red Bull Flugtag is a unique flying competition where creativity, engineering and a willingness to take a leap – literally – come together. Teams design and build human-powered flying machines, then launch them off a nearly 30-foot flight deck into the water below. The goal? Fly as far as possible (or nosedive spectacularly).
Since its debut in 1992, Flugtag has become a global event celebrating inventiveness, flight and a healthy dose of showmanship. For the 2026 Minneapolis event, our very own Full Bleed Flyers brought their oversized creation to the challenge: The Paper Airplane.
Meet the Team
The Full Bleed Flyers set out to put Smartpress and TBG’s design, engineering and print production capabilities to the test while giving a childhood classic a seriously ambitious makeover. The team included:
- Structural Designer Gabi Meissner
- Equipment Maintenance Mechanic Kyle Peabody (our fearless pilot)
- Fixture Development Manager Megan Renner
- Product Development Manager Jordan Valley
- Product Developer Tom Wasiljew
As a 100% employee-owned company, we’re no strangers to thinking big and taking ownership of ambitious ideas. And this project was no exception:
“We wanted to create a craft that incorporates the materials we work with day to day, as well as showcase the creativity and capabilities TBG has to offer,” said Valley.
And as Meissner put it, the project was also a chance to prove what happens when a team is willing to take on something completely new: “Of course none of us has ever built a plane before, but I think it shows we aren’t going to back down from a challenge.”
From concept to construction, The Paper Airplane was a chance to push beyond the usual and show what happens when employee-owned ingenuity takes flight.
See what it means to be employee-owned.
The Paper Airplane at a Glance
Designing Print that Pushes Boundaries
The concept was simple: Take the humble paper airplane and make it full bleed.* The execution? A little more complicated. How do you use humble paper products to create a human-powered aircraft that stands up to the structural demands of a 20-foot wingspan and a 12-foot-long body?
That’s where TBG’s in-house display and fixture design expertise came in. The team used 3D modeling, structural design and prototyping to work through the details, testing and refining the design along the way.
“Many people think printing is flat, but at TBG we take flat things and make them dimensional. A giant paper plane seemed like the best way to display our capabilities to the world,” said Peabody.
The body was built entirely from Reboard, with Samba fabric covering the wings. This meant it was strong but super lightweight and recyclable, too (more on that later): “A good amount of prototyping was involved to get the design right so the plane would be structurally sound and not break apart mid-air,” said Wasiljew.
This large format printing project called for the same attention to detail we bring to everyday creative print projects – just on a considerably bigger canvas.
*In the print world, full bleed means the printed content goes all the way to the edge of the page.
Custom Printing Takes Flight
If the plane was going to look like a giant paper airplane, it should look like it came straight off the press, too. The artwork took its cues from the print production process:
“The concept revolved around the printing process and CMYK,” said 3D Design Coordinator Roscoe McLaughlin. “Specifically bringing in printing motifs like the color halftone, registration marks and color bars into the final graphics.”
The artwork was scaled up and adapted across the plane’s unusual dimensions and surfaces, with vibrant colors and dripping paint effects giving the impression that The Paper Airplane had just rolled off the press. The result was a project that put Smartpress’ capabilities to work in a decidedly unconventional way.
And it wasn’t just about making the graphics big. The artwork had to work across different materials and surfaces, too: “Something that really wowed me was how saturated and vibrant the print came out, especially on the cloth-wrapped wings,” said McLaughlin.
It’s a great example of what happens when creative print projects get a little room to breathe – and in this case, fly (hopefully).
Built with Sustainability in Mind
Making a giant paper airplane fly is one thing. Trying to make it as sustainable as possible is another. From the start, the team knew the materials would have to do more than look good – they had to hold up to the demands of a human-powered aircraft.
“We knew we wanted to use sustainable materials that were going to be light and durable enough to take flight,” said Valley.
And that’s what they did: The plane’s body was built almost entirely from Reboard, a paper-based material that made up about 95% of the aircraft. Samba fabric covered the wings, giving the team a lightweight surface for the printed graphics while keeping the overall design practical for flight.
Flugtag also gave the team a chance to use sustainable print materials in a pretty unconventional way. Rather than treating sustainability as an afterthought, it was part of the design conversation from the beginning.
“It’s made almost entirely of paper-based and sustainable materials,” said Valley, “showing the strength of paper!”
It’s a fitting example of how TBG and Smartpress approach projects: Find the right materials for the job, explore what those materials can do and see how far a little creativity can go.
So… Did it Fly?
After all the print production, prototyping, problem-solving and building, it was finally time to find out whether The Paper Airplane could actually do what it was designed to do.
The short answer? It flew. The slightly longer answer? Not for very long. Let’s just say all the Red Bull we drank didn’t exactly give us wings.
But the flight itself was only one part of the experience. Weeks of designing, building, custom printing and preparing for the big day brought people from across TBG and Smartpress together in ways that speak to our employee-owned values.
“You expect the time on the flight deck to be wild, but the unexpected part was all the fun behind the scenes with all the building and preparation we did,” said Renner.
Pushing the Limits of Print Production
From a simple paper airplane concept to a 20-foot flying machine, The Paper Airplane brought together TBG’s design, engineering and development expertise with Smartpress’ print production capabilities to turn an ambitious idea into something people could see, touch and watch take flight (however briefly).
“This entire project was a true testament to TBG’s core values and capabilities,” said Wasiljew. “It showed that when we come together, we truly can achieve amazing feats.”
And speaking of feats, Valley would like to see the team take to the skies once more: “I’m hoping to assemble the Full Bleed Flyers again for future events and see what other limits we can push as a team!”
The best parts of participating in Red Bull Flugtag?
- Meissner: “The Flugtag project says a lot about how we work at TBG. This project took a great deal of creativity, design and engineering to achieve our awesome finished product.”
- Peabody: “It was the best team building exercise I have ever been a part of. We each used our expertise in different ways, but there was collaboration every step of the way!”
- Renner: “Between the meetings, building, skit practice and costume making, it was a blast and it was so much fun to SHIP IT off the flight deck together!”
- Valley: “The hype around the company was so awesome to see. People from all over TBG and Smartpress were legitimately excited for this event!”
- Wasiljew: “Team members throughout the company seemed to really enjoy watching the plane’s samples being built, seeing the test flight of the first plane’s proto and watching us practice our performance outside in the grass.”
Whether it’s our own print projects or our clients’, wowing people is what Smartpress and TBG are all about.
